Love is Sneaky
by blinnn
Summary: Casey used to get love letters all the time, but lately they haven't been coming. Dasey! Mini-Chapter Fic. Read & Review please!
1. Maturing

Author's Note!: Haha, i know i usually put, "A/N:" but i just felt like typing out the whole thing this time. haha. I am such a weirdo. ANYWAYS. When i first thought of this, i thought it was going to be a one-shot, however, when i started writing it, i just ended up realizing it is just too long for one. SO it shall be a MINI-Chapter fic. I say MINI because it will probably only be three chapters long, if that. haha, Um. I love the idea of this story and I happy to be able to write it. I just hope I do it justice. I literally dreamed this up. It was kind of weird actually. I was like waking UP from a night of sleep and i woke up thinking of a part of this story, that hasn't been written yet and it just seemed like an amazing idea. Alright so on to the story.

I do not own Life with Derek. Of course. 

Read and Review if you would like :)

There she was, standing in her room, staring at the packed boxes with a hint of sorrow. The rest of what she was feeling was wonder; wonder of what her future had in store for her.

"I'm finally leaving." She admitted out loud to herself.

"And thank God for that!" a voice called from her doorway. She instinctively rolled her eyes before turning to take in the body that now was standing just an inch into her room. She furrowed her eyebrows in an annoyed manner.

"What are you so chipper about? We're going to the same university." She reminded him and the smirk that he had been broadcasting quickly faded.

"Well it's not like we'll be in any of the same classes." Derek replied.

"That's right, because I actually have a _brain_, unlike you." Casey teased.

"I was going to say because we have different majors but yeah, whatever." Derek shifted uncomfortably in his spot.

"That's all? No arguments? I just insulted you and all you have to say is 'whatever'?" Casey instigated.

"Unlike you,_Princess_, I've matured enough to know we shouldn't have these little fights anymore." Derek said; a smirk plastered across his face again.

Casey furrowed her eyebrows once again, this time though, it was in amusement, and her eyes went wide in mock disbelief. She let out a hearty laugh and Derek glared at her, _not _amused.

"What… may I ask, is so funny?" Derek asked through gritted teeth. Casey was making it hard for him to be nice.

"You? Mature? Ha!" She said walking towards him and playfully hitting his chest before walking past him. Before she was out of earshot she added, "Good one!"

**LATER. LATER. LATER. LATER. LATER.**

It was the last dinner that the McDonald-Venturi family would share with Derek and Casey. Tomorrow they would both leave for University, and by chance of course, they got into the same one. Derek had gotten a hockey scholarship and Casey had an academic one.

Casey hadn't dated anyone since she broke up with Max. At first it was because she was still trying to find herself, but then she noticed that guys weren't even making an effort any more. She used to get love letters all the time from secret admirers, _or_ not-so-secret ones. Those letters had ceased to exist for some time now. This left Casey slightly lonely but she was strong and independent. She didn't need a guy to make her happy. But it couldn't hurt, right?

Anyway, back to the dinner. It was emotional to say the last. The girls were crying, and the men were grieving in their own way: Silence. They barely said anything to each other all night. They were men of course, and men don't talk about their feelings. The bottling of his emotions was really taking its toll on Derek. He had an extreme headache and he felt as if someone was crushing his stomach in their hands. What he wouldn't give to be a girl at this point. (A/N: HAHA)

The thought that tomorrow he would be waking up somewhere other than his own bedroom frightened him. Also, he was definitely going to miss his family.

"So, how has everyone's day?" George asked calmly. The women has finished their gabbing and crying festival now.

"Pretty eventful, George. I said some goodbyes to people I won't see when I go away tomorrow." Casey started and her eyes began to tear up. It took everything Derek had not to roll his eyes. The truth was that he _was_ really trying to mature. Well, _change_ rather. He still felt the need to bug Casey but he didn't want to continue his famous antics anymore. Little did he know that Casey lived for the fights between the two of them.

Don't get me wrong, they weren't friends or anything. Derek was just trying to be more civil towards Casey. He convinced himself it was because he was going to college soon and needed to focus. But he knew all too well that there was another reason.

They finished their dinner with a few side conversations mostly from the women of the house.

"Derek, can you help Casey do the dishes tonight?" Nora asked politely.

"No thanks, Nora. I'd rather not." Derek declined.

"Derek, that wasn't a request, it was an order. Dishes. Now!" George reinforced.

"But dad!" Derek whined like a five year old; Casey rolled her eyes.

"I thought you decided to be more mature, Derek." She narrowed her eyes at him. Seeing her give him the death glare that he had grown oh-so fond of brought him right back to where he didn't want to go anymore.

"Shut up, Klutzilla. Nobody asked you." He retaliated.

"Oooh, good comeback. So original." Casey said sarcastically. He rolled his eyes at _her_ now.

"Now who's being immature." He teased. He was getting sick of this fast. He tries to be nice to Casey and she still treats him like dirt.

"Hey, it's not my fault that you are losing your touch, Venturi." Casey said relentlessly. She loved getting him riled up mostly because she knew she was the only one that was able to do it.

George and Nora looked at each other in annoyance. "Some things just never change." Nora said shaking her head.

"I am _not_ losing my touch. I _chose_ to stop being immature; and what do you do? Bring me back to the way I was. You can't just accept that maybe I don't want to fight anymore?" Derek snapped. He didn't know what he was saying until he actually got it all out. _Shit! What did I just say?!_ Derek panicked in his head, but on the outside was just waiting for an answer from Casey. She was silent and looked like she was puzzled beyond belief. She got up quickly and made her way to the kitchen to start on the dishes leaving Derek to hang his head in his hands at the table.

He was completely unaware of the people staring at him and he just didn't care right now. He was wondering if maybe the order to do the dishes still stood even though going in there would make him feel so uneasy. _I guess the rest of the family doesn't know how I would feel going in there now…_ he thought, _they are going to make me do it anyways…UGH!_ He groaned out loud as he ran his hands through his hair violently. The family still staring at him, he got up and slammed the chair into the table before walking into the kitchen.

Nora and George looked at each other in confusion this time. George shrugged, clueless as usual, and Nora shook her head and gathered up the plates that were still on the table to bring them to the two troubled teens in the kitchen.

"What's going on, you two?" Nora asked sweetly, seeing a very silent Derek and Casey washing and drying the dishes that had been used to make dinner. She set the dirty dishes she had in her hands in the sink and let Casey work her magic. The kids didn't reply but that didn't sway Nora, she wanted answers. "I'm not leaving until someone gives me an answer." She persisted.

Casey and Derek didn't even know what was going on, especially Casey. Derek knew something: He was in love with Casey and that is why he didn't want to fight with her anymore. He wanted her to see a different side of himself that she didn't know existed. The sweet side that treated his significant others with respect, most of the time. They were going away tomorrow and he knew that they could have a new, fresh start, and without their 'family' they could actually have a relationship. None of the other McDonald's or Venturi's needed to know.

Casey had no idea that it was his plan; in fact she didn't know he had a plan. She though he was just trying to annoy her again, and that the mature thing was just an act. She figured that when they got to school he'd find more ways to play tricks on her and annoy her. In a weird way, she was almost looking forward to that, but no. Of course Derek always had to ruin a good thing, and change his dastardly ways. _Isn't this what I always wanted? Derek to mature?_ Casey thought as she was washing the dishes her mom had placed in the sink, trying to avoid any conversation she was throwing at her; _then why am I fighting it?_ She had NO idea.

Nora was still there, and now she was getting antsy. "Derek. Casey. What is going on?! I know there was a reason for that outburst, so what is it?" She tried not to sound annoyed.

"Nora, just leave well enough alone." Derek requested.

"Well enough? How is it 'well enough'? There is something wrong with you two, now tell me what it is so I can help." Nora demanded; Casey was growing tired of her mom trying to get things out of her that she herself didn't know the answer to so she just decided to reason with her.

"Look, mom. I know you want to help. But Derek and I are both just upset that we are leaving tomorrow. You know we deal with things a little differently. Just let us deal with it ourselves, please?" Casey looked straight into her mother's eyes. She believed what she had told her mom, every word of it. Casey _was_ upset that she was leaving tomorrow, and she knew Derek was too, but he was a guy and she knew he wouldn't tell anyone how he really felt; even if he was **maturing.**_ Yeah right,_ she thought.

Nora accepted this as a valid answer and smiled sweetly at her daughter before glancing at Derek who was drying his last dish solemnly. She made her way over to him and took him by the shoulders turning him around. Looking at him for a few seconds she pulled him into a hug.

"Derek, as I have said before, I have grown to love you. You know that don't you?" Nora asked pulling back from the hug and trying to gain eye contact but failing. Finally he looked up at her with a small smile on his face.

"Yeah, Nora. I know." He answered quietly before she pulled him into another hug. He had a look of discomfort on his face, but that was just a façade. He did love Nora, maybe not as a mother but more as a confidant. Someone he could trust and confide in, it just so happened she was married to his dad. "I love you too, Nora." He said and Nora snapped back staring at him in disbelief, her eyes began to water and she had another one of her sweet smiles plastered on her face.

"Oh, Derek. You have no idea how great it feels to hear you say that." She hugged him one more time, before excusing herself back into the dining room to tell her husband what his son had just said. Derek was just standing there looking at the floor, smirking. He had completely forgotten the other person in the room until she spoke.

"Did you mean that, Derek?" She asked him. He looked up at her in shock, then ran a nervous hand to the back of his head to rub it.

"Uh… yeah." Derek admitted, "I mean, she's not my mom. But ya know… I love her like… uh… a friend and stuff." Derek wanted to make it known to Casey that he didn't see Nora as a mother because then what he felt for Casey would just seem a little wrong. _But still so right, _Derek thought.

"You really _are_ maturing. And to think I thought it was all another prank, or some way to win a girl's heart, like you did with Kendra." Casey smiled a genuine smile at him and he looked away.

"Yeah, well. You know… whatever." He was at a loss for words, this conversation was a little _too _heavy for a newly maturing Derek. "The dishes are done. I'm gonna go upstairs and… finish the little packing that I still have to do." He changed the subject and didn't waste any time before retreating to his bedroom. Casey stood there in the kitchen with her thoughts.

_Is this really all over? The fights with Derek? Getting him all riled up? Do I really have to stop?_ She asked herself, she didn't want it to be true. The fights had become so routine for her, stopping them would be like not taking a shower anymore or something, okay maybe not that extreme, but still. _Can I even do that?_ She wondered. It was almost as if somewhere in the years she'd been living with Derek, they had switched roles and now she was the immature one and he just wanted it all to end. _How did this happen?_ Casey added in her mind. She realized it had been about twenty minutes since Derek had gone upstairs and she had seen Nora and George go down to their bedroom in that time period. She finally decided to go up to her bedroom and have that one last night sleeping in her bedroom at the McDonald-Venturi household.

**SLEEP IS GOOD. SLEEP IS GOOD. SLEEP IS GOOD. SLEEP IS GOOD.**

Casey woke up to a weird, nauseous feeling in her stomach. Almost like motion sickness; then she realized there was someone making her bed move up and down. She opened her eyes slightly, making her squint. Marti was jumping on her bed trying to wake her up. When Marti saw that Casey was awakening she ceased her jumping while in mid air, folding her legs Indian style so that when she landed on the bed she was sitting down. Casey sat up slowly and yawned, stretching a little.

"What time is it, Marti?" Casey asked a little groggily.

"8:42 AM. Nora told me to come and wake you and Smerek up for breakfast. So come on!" She said pulling the sheets off of Casey.

"Alright, Smarti, that's enough, leave Casey alone. I'm sure she doesn't need your help to get dressed." Derek told Marti from Casey's doorway. Casey was startled by his presence but she wasn't sure why. She smiled up at him without realizing it, and he smiled back, no, not smirked, smiled. Marti did what Derek told her and they were stuck staring at each other for a minute or two before Casey realized she should probably change.

"Well like you said, I don't need help getting dressed." Casey teased getting up and walking to her dresser to pick out her clothes; Derek's eyes darted around as if looking for an escape.

"Right. Um… I'll be downstairs." He said nervously and rushed down said stairs. Casey walked over to close the door and then walked back to her dresser to get changed. Once she was done she went downstairs to greet the rest of the family.

"Good morning, la familia." Casey said with a big smile on her face as she sat down at the kitchen island.

"La what?" Derek asked blankly.

"It means family, Derek." She said with a tone of arrogance, which she undoubtedly inherited from living with Derek himself.

"Ohhhh, yeah. I knew that." He lied, hoping people would believe him even though he knew they wouldn't. Casey rolled her eyes and let out a soft chuckle.

"So, we are going to leave at noon, and we'll probably be at campus from three to four PM. So make sure you don't have anything else to pack and then you can just hang out until noon." Nora explained to her daughter and step-son. They nodded in agreement while taking bites out of the pancakes that were made for them.

"These pancakes are gross!" Marti yelled and the family held back their laughter, all except Nora of course.

"Marti, that isn't nice. My mom worked hard on these, just so you could eat them." Casey explained and before she knew it someone else spoke up.

"I'm sorry, Case. But I have to agree with Smarti-pants on this one. These aren't very good. The pancakes you make are way better." Derek admitted stabbing the pancake on his plate with his fork and looking at it as if it were mutated.

"Derek, as flattered as I am, that isn't fair to my mom. She just wanted to make a nice breakfast for us before we left." Casey told him.

"Alright, enough. I know my cooking isn't the best, but at least I tried. I'm sorry I can't live up to your taste bud's expectations." Nora admitted, she most mostly joking, and knew not to take the insults to heart.

"I'm sorry Nora, I didn't mean to make fun of your bad cooking." Marti apologized, sort of.

"Thank you, Marti… I think. It's alright." Nora consoled before looking at the other 'trouble-maker', Derek as if waiting for his apology.

"Sorry, Nora." Derek said hardly meaning it.

"Thank you, Derek. You really are growing up." Nora said happily.

"Finally." Casey said under her breath and Derek heard her, seeing as he was sitting right next to her. He snapped his head quickly to look at her, and she looked away as if nothing had happened, and started to whistle to distract him. As if that sort of thing works.

"I heard that." He said angrily, "Nicely played, McDonald." He congratulated, his face become more calm and inviting. She looked back to him and smiled but this time he was showing off his famous smirk.

"Thanks, I guess." She said and they shared in another staring contest for a few seconds. They broke when George finally came up the stairs from the basement.

"Nice of you to join us, Dad." Edwin said to his father as he grabbed a plate and helped himself to some of the food.

"Good morning Ed; and everyone else." George offered and everyone made some sort of effort to greet him.

"Georgie, make sure we have everything ready by noon, alright honey? This is _very_ important." She warned him.

"It shall be done, Nora. Don't worry, I have everything under control." George smiled widely.

**CUE LIFE WITH DEREK NOISES THAT MAKE IT SEEM LIKE EVERYTHING WON'T BE ALRIGHT WHILE CLOSING UP ON EVERYONE'S HESITANT FACES, MAKING IT SEEM EVEN _MORE_ LIKE IT WON'T BE ALRIGHT. :)**

"What?" George asked everyone, seeing the look on their faces. "You guys don't think I'm together do you? Well I have news for you! I am so together!" He yelled trying to sound hip.

The family all raised their eyebrows in unison.

"Listen, Georgie. We know you are… _'together'._ It's just that sometimes… you are a little, forgetful." Nora explained.

"I am _not_! Name a time when I was forgetful!" George argued and then thought for a second as Nora opened her mouth to speak, he interrupted her, "Never mind, I take it back. So I'm a little forgetful… I will not forget this. I know how important it is for you two to get to the school. Don't worry about it." He continued and everyone kept silent, still not believing it a little, "I'm serious." He said in a more serious tone and everyone felt a little more at ease.

After the family was done, it was Lizzie and Edwin's turn to do the dishes which left Casey and Derek to go upstairs and make sure that there was nothing else that she had to pack. Casey packed the rest of her clothes that were still in her dresser just in case she needed any before she left. She figured it was close enough to the time she was leaving that she wouldn't be needing new clothes. Derek was packing some of his wall hangings that he had left because he just liked them too much to take them down until the last minute. Finally he stuffed the last few things into a box and sealed it. He walked over to his bed and opened a different box that he hadn't sealed yet.

The box was marked, 'IMPORTANT: DO NOT FORGET!' and Derek laughed at himself for writing it. He didn't want to forget _any_ of the boxes, of course. But this one in particular _needed_ to be remembered. He reached inside and pulled out a smaller box that took up most of the space inside of the packing box. He opened it up and stared inside at the contents. Papers, and lots of them. They were so important to him, but he had to give them up soon. Derek opened one of the papers and read what was on it, he was having a good laugh at it before someone interrupted his fun.

"Derek." Casey called from his doorway. Derek heard this and quickly hid the box, he knew Casey saw it but he also knew she wouldn't ask about it.

"Huh?" He asked a little nervously.

"Do you want to go somewhere with me? It's kind of important." Casey asked and it sure seemed urgent by the way she was pleading with him with her eyes.

"Sure." He said shrugging and putting the smaller box into the box it was originally in. He closed it, but didn't tape it up like the other boxes, _not yet_, he thought before he walked over to Casey and they went down the stairs together.


	2. The Letters

Author's note: So here it is. This is the only other chapter to this story. I am sorry to disappoint, but I assure you it is pretty good if I must say so myself. & believe me I must… because right now no one else has read it. :( lol

Sidenote: My friend Hannah and I love to make "Improper Fractions" and before you say "oh great, a math geek." I must say that they are not THOSE kinds of improper fractions. It is an innuendo of sorts. So we put people's names on top of each other. & she isn't into Life with Derek or anything, in fact this story has NOTHING to do with Life with Derek at ALL. But anyways… Some examples of improper fractions are… "Me/Michael Seater" or "Derek/Casey" so the "/" in these fractions means, "on top of" so its really like, "Me on top of Michael Seater" or "Derek on top of Casey", get it?! Well I made a funny fraction that I would like to share with you all. ACTUALLY it's a proper fraction. It goes like this. Husband/Wife… it's proper… because they are married. :) lol Okay I guess you had to be there.

Disclaimer: I do not own Life with Derek.

HAVE FUN & REMEMBER TO REVIEW! (If you wanna)

Casey was sitting in the driver's seat of the Prince and trying not to listen to the arguments that Derek was putting up.

"I just really think that I should drive." Derek protested as she buckled his seatbelt for him.

"Trust me; it is really important that I drive." Casey demanded.

"And why is that?" Derek said rolling his eyes.

"Because you are wearing a blindfold, dumbass." Casey explained as if it were obvious, well… it was.

"Another thing that needs to be explained to me. Why am I wearing this again?" He asked trying to take the blindfold off. Casey grabbed his arms before he could successfully remove it.

"Keep it on! Where we are going is a surprise, and I just want you to be fully unaware of what is going on!" Casey told him. She was definitely annoyed now. She started the car up and started driving after Derek huffed folding his arms across his chest in defeat.

It took about twenty minutes but they were finally at their destination. Casey smiled widely at the sight in front of her as she parked the car. Derek went to take the blindfold off but was stopped by Casey once again.

"Not yet, calm down." She demanded, and he rolled his eyes without anyone seeing.

"Don't roll your eyes at me. I know you did it, so don't lie." Casey reprimanded him while smiling. He sighed: once again he had been defeated.

She unbuckled his seatbelt after hers and then got out of the car to walk around to the other side to help him out of it. She took his hand and Derek felt as if he were in a dream as she laced her fingers with his as they walked over to their _final_ destination. (No, not like the movie, no one is dying here.) He really had no idea what was going on, but so far he liked it. He was holding hands with Casey and being led to a surprise that _she_ had arranged for him.

"Where are we going? And how long is it going to take to get there. I'm not big on walking…" Derek complained.

"Oh no. Mr. Hockey Scholarship can't walk about 5 yards. Just be quiet, we're here now." She said reaching up to remove his blindfold. Once the sunlight hit his eyes, he squinted before taking in the full picture in front of him. All of his friends from school and otherwise were there, including Sam, who was going to the same University as Derek and Casey. Emily was there too, undoubtedly to keep Casey company; she was also going to the same school. Derek smiled at the display as everyone started cheering at him.

He went to talk to his friends that were going to be gone completely in just a matter of hours. Sally was there too, and even though they had broken up they had stayed really good friends. He was definitely going to miss her when he was gone. After he had greeted everyone at the gathering he went back to talk to Casey.

"Hey, Casey." Derek called from a few feet away. She turned her head from the conversation that her and Emily were sharing and gave Derek a sweet smile.

"Yes?" She asked him as he walked up to her with a smirk on his face.

"Thanks for this… it was all your doing, wasn't it?" He answered.

"Yes, it was my idea, and Emily helped me get in touch with everyone. I figured I know we had that Grad party but that was just for graduating high school. We needed a going away party too." She admitted to him.

"Well you were right. Its great, thanks again." He said before turning on his heel swiftly. At least he was trying to be swift, but as he started to stride away, he bumped into someone and it broke his 'trying to be cool' look. Casey saw this and chuckled a little before trying to hide it before he got too embarrassed.

"Wow, is it just me? Or did Derek just thank you… twice?" Emily looked shocked at her best friend.

"It's not just you. He said he decided to be mature now. He told my mom he loved her last night." Casey lowered her voice so that people wouldn't hear.

"Really? Whoa, he _is_ maturing." She said. _People really have to stop saying that around here, _Casey thought. The rest of the 'party' was casual and as it neared eleven o'clock, mostly everyone had gone home. Casey told everyone that they had to leave by 11AM because they had a deadline. The only people left were the fab four: Casey, Derek, Sam, and Emily.

"Well, thanks for coming you guys." Casey said to Sam and Emily before they got into Sam's car. They had helped clean up the park that they had used for this event and now it was time for everyone to part ways, "We'll see you in school. And I'll see you in my dorm, Roomie!" Casey directed the last part to Emily to which they both added a girly squeal.

"See ya later, D." Sam said as he offered his hand to give Derek their guy handshake. Derek pushed his arm out of the way and gave him a big manly hug. "Dude, we're gonna see each other later today." Sam said as Derek pulled away from the hug.

"I know man, but you know… you're my best friend. And we should be confident in our masculinity enough to hug each other from time to time." Derek tried to recover himself, it didn't work too well. Casey and Emily shared and eye roll and a scoff at the two love-birds.

"Come on, Derek. Let's go back to the house, we gotta load up the car." Casey reminded Derek and they said another goodbye for now to their friends.

Once they got home Derek went up to their rooms and brought all of the boxes down, stuffing them into both the Prince and their parent's car. Their parents were going to drive most of their stuff to their campus while Derek was following them in the Prince with Casey. Everything was ready to go and Casey was sitting in the passenger's seat of her and Derek's car when she saw George and her mom walk to their car. _Wow, George was serious. He did have everything under control, _She thought as the parental units got into the car with the GPS in hand. She felt a calm rushing over her and knew why exactly, as Derek got into the driver's seat and buckled up. He also had a GPS mounted on his dashboard, just in case they lost their parents along the way.

The two eldest children had already said their goodbyes to the other children of the house who now were being watched by Sally until the parents got home later that night. They were all standing outside of the house waving Casey and Derek off. The two cars pulled out of the driveway and they were gone in a matter of seconds. Lizzie's eyes were tearing up but she knew she had to be strong; Casey wanted her to be.

The four of them had been traveling for about two hours and Casey had fallen fast asleep seeing as Derek wasn't much of a talker. Thankfully Derek had not lost their parents the whole time and they were now almost there. He glanced over at Casey quickly before returning his attention to the road, his dad's car still in front of him. Even though he was fully paying attention to the road in front of him, the image that he had just taken in was still plaguing his mind. Casey was just so beautiful. He had to look at her from time to time to remind himself how lucky he was to have her in his life. This was _mostly_ the reason he decided not to be so immature from now on. He needed her to know that he was in this for the long haul and he didn't want her to leave. That is when he came up with his plan. There was more to it than just being mature though. He had to show her that he actually cared, and also tell her his feelings. He had the _perfect_ way to do that, but it wasn't happening yet. _In time_, he thought as his mouth grew into a large smile.

Another hour and a half and they finally reached their campus. Derek parked the Prince and got out of the car, advancing to the other side to open Casey's door. She was still asleep. _So cute_, he thought, looking at her. He opened the door and reached over her to unbuckle her seatbelt. He really didn't want to wake her up, but he needed to.

**A DREAM SEQUENCE?! A DREAM SEQUENCE?! A DREAM SEQUENCE?!**

_Derek was walking across one of the various large patches of grass at their new school. Casey eyed him from where she was sitting with Emily and random people that she really didn't know. Emily saw Casey staring at something and followed her line of sight to see what exactly caught her interest: Derek Venturi. Emily rolled her eyes._

_"Casey, when are you going to talk to him?" Emily asked her best friend._

_"You know I can't do that. It'd be too weird. We're step-siblings." Casey argued._

_"Ummm, yea. STEP. And its not like you two live with your 'family' anymore. You are both adults in college. Now go talk to him!" Emily was standing now and she grabbed Casey's arm to pull her up. Emily was slightly stronger than Casey, either that or Casey really **did** want to go talk to Derek, she wasn't sure. Finally Emily called to Derek for him to stop walking and pushed Casey over to him. The force of Emily's push was no match for Casey's balance and she found herself on top of her step-brother on the ground, staring into his eyes._

_"Casey." Derek said staring right back._

"Casey…" Derek said for the second time, this time loud enough for her to hear him in her slumber. She popped open her eyes and looked around. "We're here, Case." He smiled holding out his hand for her to take it. She obliged and_ he_ pulled _her _out of the car this time. Casey looked up at the large series of buildings that were standing in front of her. She had been here before for orientation, but this time, it just seemed more… permanent. Well, it was!

Casey looked at the man that she was just on top of in her dreams and stared at him for a few seconds. _Why did I dream about Derek?_ She asked herself, _more importantly… what did I want to tell him? _She realized he was trying to talk to her and she hadn't been listening.

"Casey. Did you hear me? We have to go meet Nora and my dad. Are you coming?" He asked her; she nodded and he entangled his hand with hers before dragging her across the parking lot. This time it was her turn. Her turn to have the feeling rush through her has he laced his hand with hers. She couldn't help but contort her face into a goofy grin while staring at the back of his head the whole way across the lot.

"Hey you two! Here's your stuff… George and I will help you guys bring it in." Nora explained to the new college students. Derek went into the trunk first, opening one of his boxes quickly and taking out a box that was inside. He looked over at Casey's boxes and found one that hadn't been closed and tossed the box that was in his belongings into hers, closing it back up. He then grabbed a few of his own boxes and pulled them out of the trunk, taking them up to his room.

Casey followed Derek with a bunch of her boxes, including the one with a new addition to it. After about twenty minutes all of their belongings were into their rooms and they were saying goodbye to their parents. Casey was crying again, but she knew that she would see her mother for holidays. Derek gave his dad the same 'manly hug' that he had given Sam earlier and told him he'd see him later. The two young adults watched as their parents drove away from them. After they were out of sight Derek was the first to speak.

"Alright… well I'm going to go unpack. How about you?" Derek asked.

"I don't know. I kind of want to explore the grounds first…" Casey debated.

"Don't you think it'd be best to unpack first? You know… just because… then you won't have to do it later?" Derek tried his best to convince Casey to unpack.

She mulled it over in her head for about a half of a minute before speaking, "Yeah… I guess you're right. Do you maybe want to meet up after we're done packing?" Casey offered and Derek smiled.

"I'm sure I'll see you around soon after." Was all Derek said before he retreated to his dorm room; he didn't even want to unpack yet, he just wanted Casey to so he could get it all over with.

"Weird." Casey said to herself when Derek left. _He didn't really answer the question, but oh well,_ she thought. She then made her way to her own room and started unpacking the boxes that filled a whole half of the area. She had most of the boxes unpacked when she found one that contained something that wasn't hers.

"Great, I probably took one of Derek's boxes by accident." Casey said rolling her eyes, but then she looked closer at the object. It was a brown box that had an envelope on top of it, and on the envelope it said, "Casey". She pulled the envelope off of the box and opened it. Inside there was a piece of paper with just a few words scribbled on it.

"Casey,

I'm sorry.

-Derek.

P.S. Make sure you examine **EVERY** thing inside of this box very carefully before the next time you see me."

Casey's eyebrows furrowed in confusion but she continued on. She opened the box and found a large pile of papers. These papers had many different shades of ink with many different kinds of handwriting. They were letters, all addressed to her, all from different guys. Casey's eyes grew wide, _that's where the love letters went, _she thought as she pulled one out of the box and read it.

"Casey,

I think you are really great, and beautiful. I was just wondering if maybe sometime you'd like to go out to dinner or something. I figured since you are single again, it'd be pretty cool. So get back to me, my number is 555-1875. –Randy Lowe."

Casey didn't know who half of these guys were; she read a few more until she stumbled upon one that caught her off guard. It was at the very bottom of the pile.

"Casey,

Alright. I bet you are wondering what is going on right now… well I guess I should tell you. I noticed you were getting these letters in the mail and yeah I know, it's illegal to open people's mail but you know me, I'm not big on authority. But here's the thing. I know that even though you and Max broke up… well I know you were trying to find yourself so when you started getting these letters I figured I'd save you the agony of having to let these guys down by taking the letters. Then after a while I just realized that wasn't the only reason I was taking the letters. I didn't want you to go out with any of these guys. Two reasons, they are all losers, of course. And also because… well I'll just come out and say it. I love you." Casey read this and had to sit down on her bed before she collapsed. She read on.

"I am deeply in love with you Casey McDonald, You are strong, independent, beautiful, and just everything any guy could ask for. And well... I figured now that we are in college, we would actually have a chance at a normal relationship… that is of course if you return the feelings. Anyways… I just wanted to tell you all of this. And I'm sorry about keeping these letters from you. I hope you understood why I had to. What can I say? Love is sneaky.

Love, Derek."

Casey finished reading the letter and put the box down beside her on her bed. Her face showed what could only be described as confusion. She ran her hands through her hair and sighed deeply.

_Do I feel the same way about Derek? _She thought, and then she let out a huge laugh, "Who am I kidding? Of course I do!" She realized, throwing her hands in the air and letting herself fall back onto her bed. She held the letter that Derek wrote to her to her heart and smiled widely. "I'm in love with Derek Venturi." She continued. She realized that her sitting around was doing no good. She knew she was supposed to read _all _of the letters in the box before seeing him but she figured that was only because he wanted to make sure she read this one. So she ran out of her room still holding the letter from Derek, and ran to his dorm room. She wasted no time knocking loudly on his door. She waited a second and a man came to the door that wasn't Derek.

"Oh… hey Sam… Um… Is Derek in here?" She said stretching to see if she could see inside the room.

"I'm right here." He said walking up to the doorway he tried to hide his discomfort when he saw the letter in her hand. _That was quick_, he thought. The next thing he knew she grabbed him by the shirt and brought him down an inch or two to kiss him passionately. It didn't take long for him to kiss back, and there they were, Derek and Casey, kissing. With Sam watching from the sidelines.

"Ahem." Sam cleared his throat and the two broke apart quickly. He looked at them in confusion, "Someone gonna tell me what's going on here?" He asked.

Derek was going to open his mouth to speak when Casey interrupted him.

"I'm in love with Derek." She admitted and Derek looked at her with wide eyes.

"Really?" He asked trying to hide his happiness but failing miserably.

"Of course, loser. Why do you think I kissed you?" She teased.

"Well then… I love you too." Derek said leaning in to kiss her again. They were smiling against each others lips when Sam spoke up again.

"Alright, well will someone tell me something I _didn't _already know?" Sam said.

"What?" Derek broke from Casey's lips to ask his buddy, "You already knew? But I didn't tell you, did you tell him you liked me Casey?" Casey shook her head at the same time that Sam responded.

"No one had to tell me. It was obvious. You guys talk about each other more than anyone else in your lives. You'd have to be retarded not to know you love each other." Sam explained.

"Who else knows?" Casey asked.

"I don't know. No one really talks about it, but it's just a well known fact, you know?" Sam answered as if it were an everyday occurrence.

"Well then how come I didn't really know that I was in love with him until I started thinking about it?" Casey asked.

"Because you didn't think about it." Sam explained as if she were a 3 year old. Casey pouted and Derek just laughed a little.

"Alright well enough of this mushy crap. Can I go unpack now?" Derek asked her and she looked at him as if he were crazy.

"You aren't done? I thought you went right up to your room to unpack to get it out of the way." Casey said obviously confused.

"You think I could concentrate on where things went in my room while I was waiting to hear from you? I was pacing the room for the past half hour waiting for you." Derek told her.

"It's true, it was really annoying." Sam reinforced, "I didn't know why he was pacing and he wouldn't tell me. All he said was he was thinking. Sap." He teased Derek and playfully shoved him on the shoulder. Derek looked annoyed before Casey finally answered his question.

"Well I guess I will let you go pack. But later, you're all mine." She said seductively and he bit his lip before quickly changing his mind.

"You know… packing can wait." He said and he heard her squeal as he picked her up and brought her into his dorm room. Sam excused himself saying he had other things to do. He didn't want to be there when they did anything. _AWKWARD._

"You're so perfect." Derek said cupping Casey's cheek in his hand. He was slightly on top of her on their bed, and they were staring deeply into each other's eyes.

"I'm sorry, my dear. But there is only one person here who is perfect and that would be you." Casey argued playfully as she touched a finger to his nose. He smiled before capturing her lips with his own for another heated kiss.

"I'm glad you love me." Derek said as they broke for air.

"I'm glad I love you too." She said, smiling at him.


End file.
